Fire Deaths Hit Record Low

New York City recorded the lowest number of fire-related deaths in its history in 2012, which also marked the seventh consecutive year in which fewer than 100 people died in a fire.

The city had 58 fatalities last year, four fewer than the previous record low of 62 in 2010. The figures mirror a national trend of improving fire safety that officials and experts attribute to several factors, primarily fire-prevention education and smoke detectors.

ENLARGE

Of the fire-related deaths in New York City in 2012, nearly 80% occurred in places that had no working smoke detectors.

The record low in fire fatalities came even as the number of structure fires in the city rose 1% and firefighter response time increased, from 4 minutes, 2 seconds in 2011 to 4 minutes, 4 seconds in 2012. All the data were detailed in a news conference Wednesday by Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
and Fire Department Commissioner
Salvatore Cassano.

"The FDNY has consistently improved fire safety over the past decade and has continued to drive response times to historic lows," Mr. Bloomberg said in a news release. Officials tied the uptick in response time partly to a crush of emergency calls during superstorm Sandy, when firefighters responded to nearly 100 structure fires.

From 2002 to 2012, the city had an average of 85 fire-related deaths per year, compared with the previous decade's annual average of 140 people. In the 1980s, an average of 236 people died in fires annually.

Smoke detectors, which became required by law in every home in New York City in 1981, are considered by fire officials and safety experts the most effective way to prevent injury and death from fires.

From 2000 to 2009, fire-related deaths declined 19.6% nationwide, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said it was difficult to "pin down any specific thing that led to this city and nationwide reduction" but pointed toward public education and smoke alarms as "the most recognizable factors."

Beginning in the 1980s, when most states began making smoke detectors in homes mandatory, fire deaths began to fall, Mr. Corbett said.

"Smoke detectors put a major dent in fire deaths," said Mr. Corbett, a former assistant chief with the Waldwick, N.J., fire department. "They compensate for people not behaving correctly."

Mr. Cassano said "a simple smoke detector may be the difference between you or a loved one surviving a fire or not."

Mr. Cassano credited the department's outreach efforts, coupled with better medical training for firefighters and emergency medical technicians, with saving lives that might otherwise be at risk after a fire.

He also estimated the department reached 600,000 people annually in public-education campaigns. "The best way to put out a fire is to prevent it," he said. "We're getting that message out and it's certainly working."In 2012, the city distributed 22,200 free smoke detectors and nearly 89,000 batteries for use in those alarms.

New inspection forms put into use in 2009 also have helped, Mr. Cassano said.

The forms, used by FDNY members conducting building inspections, are specific to the type of location (hotels, day-care center, construction sites, etc.) and use checklists designed to produce a more detailed review of the site.

Inspectors now formally check whether exits are blocked or rubbish is piled up, among other things. "The quality of inspections is far better," he said. "It's a bigger check list with more information on it."

Additionally, 2012 also saw a record-low response time by ambulances to emergencies that are considered life-threatening. On average, New Yorkers in dire situations waited 6 minutes, 30 seconds for an FDNY ambulance to arrive, compared with the previous record of 6 minutes, 31 seconds in 2011.

The reduction came despite a 3.4% increase in emergency-call volume, partially driven by the single-day record of 5,681 calls during Sandy.

Mr. Corbett said the city's record low number of fire deaths is a "great statistic," but cautioned it also "very vulnerable and can skew pretty dramatically with just one fire."

New York didn't have a mass-fatality fire last year as it did in 2007, when nine children and one adult were killed when a blaze tore through their Bronx building.

The fire was sparked by an overheated electrical cord, and the smoke detectors in building didn't have batteries.

"There a ton of those kinds of buildings out there," Mr. Corbett said. "It's a difficult issue to deal with."

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